I’m about to visit the Little Bighorn battlefield this summer. I’m pretty familiar with the battle itself, but have yet to read up on a what-if scenario. The original plan was to have 3 columns converge on the Indian camp. Gibbon from the west, Terry from the east, and Crook from the south.
But suppose Custer didn’t rush ahead. Suppose he stayed with Terry, and then reinforced by Gibbon, fought the Indians. Would this larger force have turned the tide? Checking wiki, Custer had 12 cavalry companies (about 600 troopers), which was a bulk of Terry’s command. After that, it appears another 8 companies of infanty and 4 of cavalry. I couldn’t find a count, but would that be another 1000 men (100 per infantry, 50 per cavalry?).
So, that still 2500 Indians vs 1600 US soldiers, so they would still be outnumbered. The US would’ve had an artillery advantage with gatling guns. I figure the Indians would have more mounted warriors and possibly better quality (the frontier forces were filled with immigrants). Plus you also had to figure the US would not be prepared for so large a force.
What would be the likely outcome? Could the Indians have still prevailed? If they even stood and fought?
Crook’s force of around 1,000 was stopped at the Rosebud, so we’ll also leave them out of this.
Cheap shot answer? Custer wouldn’t have been Custer if he waited.
Personal belief? The Amerinds would have melted away into every gully, gulch, and arroyo in the Dakotas and booked for Canada. They would not have stuck around to see how 3:2 odds would play out. They had their families to protect.
Instead of sitting and waiting for reinforcements, Custer might have benefited from greater boldness, at least according to Nathaniel Philbrick’s analysis of the battle in Custer’s Last Stand.
Philbrick argues that if Reno’s detachment hadn’t paused and instead had ridden straight into the Indian encampment, a rout might well have ensued (as had occurred in a previous engagement).
Of course, it might also have helped if Reno hadn’t gotten drunk during the battle.
Given what the average person drank back then, I’ve long thought that inebriation explained a lot of the bad decisions of history. However, Benteen testified that, had Reno had been drunk, “I would have known something about it. I did not know he had any whiskey or I would have been after some.” Yet another fine old military tradition maintained. Anyway, since when does being drunk make a person MORE cautious?
Bloody good post DROPZONE, very interesting to hear the true story.
Things don’t seem to change, when it all goes tits, we’re all the same people, in the same desperate situation and we’re all shitting ourselves while pretending to be totally cool.
I think because we can see pictures of them we see them as people just like us, so we can imagine what they went through.
People like ourselves, rather then people in history that we’ve read about.
Personally I could have totally identified with the men in that action because they were just like me.
And I am just like them, but maybe not so tough, and maybe not so brave.
But good enough to keep up .
(looking at your other posts and trying to build a sober, coherent thought from them) Maybe you should check back tomorrow and see if you still feel like that.
A better question might be what if Custer had a company of the troops he led in the Civil War? Custer’s understanding of tactics was, Charge! His soldiers at Big Horn were mostly poorly trained men unfamiliar with their weapons many of which jammed after the 1st shot because the cheap ass Am Govt was buying copper cartridges instead of brass. Indians were great fighters but like all tribal fighters their greatest concern was to avoid mass casualties. A Company of Union Cavalry armed with Spencers and speed loaders and some of those big old Colt horse pistols would’ve made Custer much less the fool.
While the big old Colt horse pistols/revolving cannon were great in the 1840s and 1850s, in a scrap even I would prefer the faster reloading of the weaker Single Action Army Colt. As for jamming…
Anyway, since when does being drunk make a person MORE cautious?
